Quality problems with Datafeeds

I do a great deal of Affiliate Datafeed marketing, indeed it takes up probably around 80% of my affiliate marketing activity. I am constantly finding problems and issues with datafeeds provided by some very big names, poor quality, incorrect formatting, invalid XML, poorly formatted CSV files, but my biggest issues I have with merchants is …

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How to Apply the Bloggers Rule of 24 to Affiliate Marketing

I have recently written a post on my other blog about how I intend to use the bloggers rule of 24 to improve my blogging out put. I will be using that methodology here on this blog, but it has also got me thinking where else one could or should implement such a methodology. In …

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Discount Code for the Affiliate Datafeed Import Plugin for WordPress

I am offering the readers of this site the chance to get a massive 20% discount on the datafeed Import Plugin For WordPress until the end of June. This tool has been built specifically for Affiliate marketers and allows you to rapidly develop affiliate sites. If you want to take up this offer to get …

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10 steps to Creating an affiliate datafeed driven website

This article describes the techniques I use to earn money (affiliate income) from datafeed driven websites in 10 simple steps. It is quite a long article as there is a lot of ground to cover, and even with this length there are things that we will simply skirt across and other things we will not …

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Check List for After You Publish a Blog post

I have just written an article over on my other blog, MattHouldsworth.com about how I promote each blog post after I publish it. Much of what you read on the net about promoting your blog takes a holistic view point, however, in my opinion you also need to look after the finer detail, if your …

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Quality problems with Datafeeds How to Apply the Bloggers Rule of 24 to Affiliate Marketing Discount Code for the Affiliate Datafeed Import Plugin for WordPress 10 steps to Creating an affiliate datafeed driven website Check List for After You Publish a Blog post

Nov
22

5 Ways To Find Profitable Niches For Affiliate Marketing

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Finding a profitable niche for your affiliate marketing campaign takes work but landing the correct one has the possibilities to earn you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

In a nutshell, a niche is a highly targeted interest for a product or service.

Instead of reaching for a large market dominated by corporations, niches allow you to reach a passionate community without such competition – giving you the added edge to market your affiliate product.

The following are 5 ways you can find profitable niches for your next affiliate marketing campaign.

EBay

Ebay offers one of the largest marketplaces online where millions of users search each day on very specific items within their interested niches.

Many use eBay to buy and sell products related to hobbies and niche interests; this allows you to see exactly what these people are demanding and have an interest for – talk about competitive edge.

Within eBay, drill down within each category to find micro marketplaces. Each of these marketplaces presents you with niche.

Assess each of these categories that interest you by seeing how many products are listed, which sell, past auctions and if there are active discussions related to the category.

If you find a micro marketplace that suits you; you’ve found a profitable niche for your next affiliate marketing campaign.

Affiliate Marketplaces

Did you know the same location you find affiliate products to promote also provide you with incredible insights about niches that are highly profitable?

Within many affiliate marketplaces such as Clickbank, Commision Junction, E-Junkie and Neverblue are ratings for which products are hot and selling.

Do you think you could use this data to find a profitable niche? Of course!

Simply filter your searches to view which products have high amounts of sales, affiliates or gravity and you’re onto the next hot affiliate product to promote within the same niche.

SpyFu

SpyFu is perhaps one of the most powerful tools that is rarely used in affiliate marketing. In short, SpyFu allows you to peer into what advertisers are paying for pay per click campaigns – knowing this, you can easily determine which keywords are highly competitive.

As a test, type in the name of a major competitor featuring a product you may be interested in. Within the results of SpyFU you can see which other businesses bid on these keywords and what price.

If you notice a keyword is doing rather well, drill down deeper to find the root niche of this keyword. If a business is spending a high amount for each pay per click, you can conclude the niche is very profitable.

One final bonus of SpyFu is the top 100 paying advertisements. This list shows the highest paying advertisements which you could use to determine new profitable niches for your affiliate marketing campaigns.

Wordtracker

Wordtracker comes in a free or paid version that tracks the search habits of web users from a variety of search engines.

Wordtracker is great to find highly targeted keywords within a profitable niche but to find the niche begin by typing in the broad word related to it.

For example, “Dog” would be a very broad topic, “Dog Care” would be closer but “Dog Flea Products” has the potential to be a very profitable niche based on the focus and passion of those searching for the term.

Wordtracker is an amazing tool but do take the results with a grain of salt as they display only a fraction of what has been searched upon. However, wordtracker does give you a very great idea for profitable niches and affiliate products.

Twitter Trends

Last, but not least, Twitter trends show you real time results of interests, hobbies and niches people are actively talking about on Twitter.

With millions of users, Twitter gathers many people from around the world that discuss the ins and outs of niche interests.

Not all trends are profitable but if you see an untapped niche topic spring up, you may have yourself the perfect opportunity to make money with your affiliate products or services.

Displayed on the front page, Twitter Trends are constantly changing. Click on a few of these trends to see what questions are being asked by people, see if there is a void of information or products and enter the niche.

In total, these are just five ways you can find profitable niches for your affiliate marketing campaigns. The real power is when you use each of these in tandem to solidify your research before you begin.

Use each of these tools to drill into interests shared by passionate groups of people. Talk to them and find what they are missing, what they need or what they desire.

If you can fill this need for products or services, you will find yourself the authority of a very profitable niche.

Combined with affiliate marketing, niches are the future of making money online. No longer will you need to fear the big budgets of a large corporations – the market is in your hands.

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Nov
18

How to Improve Search Engine Ranking

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Search engine ranking has been one of the challenges faced by an internet marketer or any web master for that matter. Techniques of search engine optimization have to be carefully adhered to if an affiliate marketer aims at improving search engine ranking of his website or blog.

Search engines adopt certain criteria by which they would rank the websites depending on factors such as the popularity of webpages, quality of content and the number of unique visitors that haunt the site or blog in a given period of time.

What are the techniques that have to be adopted by the website owner or the affiliate marketer in order to get a higher search engine ranking? Traffic to the site is the most important result that is aimed by any marketer. The techniques that promote traffic to the site include selection of keywords by proper research, building a quality content that suits the selected niche, use of meta description tags and title tags, simple URL structure of the site, building up popularity of the site and building up backlinks.

As far as building up backlinks is concerned, care has to be taken to see to it that they are not procured through spamming but obtained through legal methods such as article marketing and forum posting. URL of the website may be included in the signature used in the forums. Blog commenting should be done on relevant blogs only. The concept of reciprocal links can be put to good use in driving quality visitors to the site.

E-mail marketing done with precision will certainly improve the quality of the visitors to a site or a blog. Care has to be taken in e-mail marketing too against the situation of being called as a dreaded spammer. Pay per click programs also assist in the positioning of a website in search engine result pages. This method is of course expensive as it involves cost per click in the advertising service provided by the program.

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Nov
12

Discount Codes for Datafeed Import and Amazon Import Plugins for WordPress

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If you are looking for a great way to get an affiliate site off the ground quickly and easily, you can use the Datafeed Import Plugin for WordPress and its sister plugin The Amazon Import Plugin for WordPress.

They are both usually proced at £25 but if you use the discount code of ‘nov12′ until the end of November 2010 you can get the plugins for just £20 each.

£40 for a total affiliate website building solution, which allows you to rapidly build websites without any technical knowledge.

Get those Christmas affiliate sites up and running before it is too late!

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Jul
02

How to Boost Clicks with Superior Quality PPC Ads

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Anyone can create a PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertisement. Sites like Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and 7 Search are just a few.

In many cases these services attach a quality score to an Ad. This among other factors help decide positioning of the Ad.

In order to increase the click rate of your advertisement, craft a superior quality Ad. More visits to your website presents an oppertunity for more sales.

When I say superior, I mean better than a low quality advertisement. I also mean better than the competitions Ad. Badly written Ads can garner high impressions, but under 1% of those people are clicking through.

It doesn’t matter if it’s search traffic or content network traffic. You can tell your Ad is weak when thousands of people view it, and too small an amount visit your site.

If you’re this far along on the marketing path, then you should have a fair idea of howin demand your offering is.

But there is time tested techniques to use that improve the click rate. These have been employed by traditional marketers for decades. It’s hardly any different from todays online marketing.

People have used Pay Per Click to drive visits to their website for years. More often than not, it’s the quality of the advertisement that determined the amount of people coming back to their website.

At that point, it was up to the Advertiser to convert them into sales. This puts the control back into their hands.

With countless testing on variations, their now capable of writing high converting Ads. Some now offer this as a stand-alone service.

Do you want to know what these methods of improving quality score and click rates are?

When targeting a specific keyword or phrase, that’s what needs to be in the first line. Using the exact word the person is searching for. Thisshows precise relevance.

But just including the search word is not enough. It must be included properly in the Headline. The headline of course being the first line. It must sound like a normal sentence.

The description is usually two lines of text. Use these wisely to communicate the benefit of your offering. Clearly outline the features or value of your product or service. Again, use normal sentences.

Tell the person viewing the Ad what to do. Use a call to action. This is classicadvertising. Command them to click, call or visit. Directing the next action is the most powerful use of your advertisement. This should only be done on the last line of the description.Give them a price. Don’t make this a mystery . What do you have to hide? If you don’t, then you’re not confident in the pricing. It means you wouldn’t pay that for your own product. If the price is not right, you need to fix it.

Use these techniques however you want. Test various Ad layouts to see which brings the most clicks. Not only will it improve the quality of your advertisement, but it will surely boost the amount of interest in your product or service.

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Jun
28

5 Factors That Affect Search Engine Result Placements Of A Site

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Search engine rankings are extremely important for any web master. For a majority of the blogs and websites, search engines are the biggest source of traffic.  To get a good ranking in search engine rankings especially of Google, there are a lot of factors that come into play. However, there have been continuous increase in our knowledge on what are the factors that are important for a blogger to improve their search engine rankings.

Here are five important factors that affect search engine results placement of a site:

External Links: The number of sites linking to your site is the most major factor of your search engine rankings. But you should always go for high-quality links rather than focusing on the quantity of links you get. If you are getting two to three links from PR6 and PR7 blogs it is much more valuable than a hundred links from PR1 and PR2 blogs. So always focus on getting your blog as many links as you can from high page rank sites. Also remember never to get linked from link farms or bad neighborhoods as Google and other search engines will blacklist you.

Domain Age: Google loves aged-domains that have been in use for years. It has been seen by experience that Google trusts domains that are aged. So you can either buy domains which are old or you can get links from aged domains that will help you improve your worth in the eyes of search engine bots. It is always observed that older domains rank higher in search engine results.

Frequency of Posting: The frequency at which you post on your blog can be more important that you thought. Google is always in the look out for fresh contents. Google generally gives you a lot of authority if your blog is updated regularly. But this does not mean that you begin to post short or unoriginal content on your blog as it will only make you rank lower. Update regularly, but with unique and useful content. A posting frequency is important not only to keep your readers engaged but to maintain a good position in search engine results.

Page Load Time: This is the latest factor which Google has become to consider in their search engine algorithm. Senior engineer from Google, Matt Cutts has already confirmed that the page load time of a site will also be considered in the search engine rankings from now on.

Research Content: It is also known now that research related content to any topic is preferred by Google. Meaning long articles will always be ranking better than short articles that only last between 100 to 200 words. Keep your articles long and keyword rich. This will help you rank really well for a lot of keywords for Google’s search engine results.

So these are among the most important 5 factors that Google has begun to consider for placing your site in its search engine results. It is important that a blogger focuses his efforts to improvise on these factors so that he can get more traffic out of strong search engine results placements.

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Jun
15

4 Secrets To Select A Money Making Niche For Your Blog

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A blogger is always is in a dilemma about which niche to choose for his blog. A good niche can make or break his dreams of making money online. Niche blogging is a great way for you to ensure that your blog gets a loyal readers base and has a firm footing in a particular topic. Unfortunately, most bloggers make poor judgements while choosing niche for their blogs. This is where intelligent thinking is required, so as to select a niche that will reward you well.

Here are 4 secrets to select a money making niche for your blog:

Your Interest: this is the point of paramount importance before you select a niche. Are you interested in what you are blogging or are you simply typing meaningless words on your blog without any passion? Always choose a niche which you are interested in – it need not be something always that you are very passionate about, but it should be something that you would like to give attention. Your interest is important in any niche you choose because otherwise you will lose interest in writing on your blog – which will be a big loss to you.

Trending: You must make it a point to study the trending of the niche. Because not all niches are evergreen, furthermore, there are also a few niches that are seasonal. So you must be sure to understand what is the trending of the niche. Is it a niche that will be able to provide sustainable income in the future as well or will it just be a temporary asset for you. You must carefully ponder upon this and then choose the niche.

Income Sources: Everything is based on this fact – what is the scope for money making from a niche. There are various monetizing techniques of a niche – such as PPC campaigns, text link ads, affiliate products, banner ads etc. Keep in mind that all niche cannot make use of these monetizing strategies. Some niche perform well in affiliate products while other perform well for PPC campaigns. You must do the required research on this parameter before deciding any niche.

Competition: All smart bloggers take this point seriously before jumping into any niche. Even if you find that the niche has an evergreen value and that there are lots of ways you can monetize it – you might want to reject it. The reason is – competition. If the niche you plan to enter is a hyper-competitive market then you might want to think again. Creating your own set of readers or simply getting noticed in a crowded niche can become cumbersome for you and can affect your enthusiasm adversely. This is a major reason why many bloggers fail in few niches – it is because of the sheer competition in those niche.

No doubt that selecting a niche is not an easy task. There is a lot that goes behind the thought-process. No one should finalize any niche before a thorough research on the market demands and its trending is performed.

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Jun
10

How To Create Highly Optimized Links Search Engines Love

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Great search engine optimization is a very important goal for any website that lives on the traffic it generates. There are many factors when it comes to search engine optimization, one of them being correct usage of url links.

An optimized link will help direct search engines to their correct destination while providing you with greater search engine placement based on your chosen keywords.

It’s not difficult to develop an optimized link habit but many people still neglect this simple trick that is costing them thousands of visitors each month.

Here are 3 ways you can create highly optimized links that search engines love.

1. Avoid String URLs

Many ecommerce websites use dynamic page generation for product pages and articles.

These pages often look like http://www.example.com/?=9821_Article.

This type of link structure, although still possible to index, is highly troublesome and irrelevant for search engine spiders.

Most CMS systems provide a method to change dynamic links to keyword rich strings. Modification through the htaccess file is also possible but does require additional technical knowledge.

To build a highly optimized url (without strings) you should focus on the main keywords you want your page to rank for.

Omit unwords such as:

•    the
•    and
•    of

Converting your string url structure to a keyword rich url will help with your search engin optimization, placing you higher within search results, driving you a fair amount of traffic.

2. Use Keyword Rich URLs

The previous example touched on the use of keyword rich urls but to further explain the importance of these urls here are a few more reasons.

Search engine optimization is often broken down to:

•    Off Page Optimization
•    On Page Optimization

When you provide a link in a blog comment, author byline or anywhere within your previous articles, using a descriptive and keyword rich url string instead of the traditional “click here” helps tell the search spiders what the next page is about.

Instead of using “Click here to jump to page 2″, you could use “View Additional Information About Bicycles” if you happen to write about such topic. This method can be applied across any niche or topic, simply substitute out the words.

The point is to create a link that users want to click that also provides additional information.

3. Go For The Long Tail

The long tail keyword is simply a search phrase instead of one or two keywords internet users type when searching for information in search engines.

It’s very difficult to rank for a single keyword because major businesses pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to rank high for the term.

The more practical way to rank well in the search engines and improve your search engine optimization is to target long tail keyword phrases users type.

Instead of “bicycle” you could narrow down your urls to include phrases such as “how to ride a bicycle”. This method of optimizing your urls will be much easier and give you more relevant traffic as you know people are searching for specific information.


Adopt An Optimized URL Habit

Once you become accustomed to creating keyword rich urls, you’ll be able to interlink, back link and develop your url structure that converts sales and gives you better search engine placement.

Apply these tips across your website to give search spiders an easier time to find your content and rank it for the correct terms you aim for.

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Jun
10

V2.03 datafeed import plugin for WordPress released

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I have released a new version of my datafeed import plugin for WordPress. This version includes a couple of minor bugs but also includes tow new great features which are link cloaking which is great for masking affiliate links and also click tracking.

If you would like more information on the plugin please visit the Datafeed Import Plugin for WordPress website.

This release comes as I work on other WordPress plugin projects which will soon be released. Version 2.0 of the Amazon import plugin for WordPress will be released very soon, I have a few issues I need to iron out first, but I hope to have it released sometime over this weekend.

I have also been working on a new plugin WordPress Advertiser. This is not specifically targeted at affiliate marketers, but it does have a market for all WordPress users. It manages the whole process of creating advertising slots on your WordPress blog, and then selling adverts via paypal subscriptions.

The WordPress Advertiser plugin can also be used by affiliate marketers who wish to manually add affiliate adverts to their WordPress blog without the sell advertising side.

I hope that this plugin will complement the other plugins I have.

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Jun
05

How To Use Blog Commenting To Drive Incredible Traffic To Your Website

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Everyday thousands of blogs appear on the net, giving each writer a voice and a platform for readers to share their opinions.

The fundamental difference between a blog and a static website is the interaction. Blog commenting gives readers the ability to continue a topic of discussion while simultaneously promote their own links.

Proper and respectful blog commenting is a very simple and effective way to drive traffic to your website.

With millions of niche websites and blogs on the net, becoming an authority and being active with blog commenting will put you right in front of the same rabid visitors that are eager to learn more – by directing them to your own website.

The following is a few ways you can use blog commenting as a way to increase your search engine optimization and drive wild amounts of traffic to your website.

1. Use Correct Etiquette

Blog owners use their precious time to write articles for their readers. Commenting is a natural way for readers to extend the topic but there are certain guidelines you should obey when leaving your own comment.

First off, you should never spam comments. Comment spam is detrimental to both the blog owner and blog reader. Spamming links will place a negative image within the minds of people interested in your niche while being promptly deleted by the blog owner.

Second, you should try to keep the topic flowing. Derailing the topic with hateful speech or drama is a quick way to break proper blog comment etiquette – don’t do it.

Lastly, don’t leave a comment that doesn’t fit within the scope of the blog. If a blog is talking about tech news, it doesn’t make a bit of sense to leave a comment and link about a diet product, it comes across as spam and is very rude.


2. Provide Helpful Insight

Blog commenting is utilized to keep a discussion going. Although a writer will do the best to their ability to cover the topic of the post, blog commentors will be able to pick up from where it left off, lending helpful and insightful information.

To drive traffic to your website, comment on blogs within your expertise, continue the discussion and give more than you take. When users come to know how helpful you are, they will follow through your provided link, landing on your page.

Likewise, a reader which provides excellent comments can sometimes be highlighted by the blog owner. As appreciation for your interaction on the blog, they may talk about you in later posts, giving you additional links and spotlight to drive traffic to your website.

3. It’s All In The URL

Common blog format calls for:

•    Name
•    Email
•    URL

The URL is your opportunity to share additional websites that fit within the scope of the blog or blog post. Readers will be eager to seek out additional information and when you are on the forefront with your link, they will follow through, driving free traffic to your blog.

Why Blog Commenting Matters Most

When you provide helpful, respectful and informational comments, you capture readers that are already hot on topic.

These “hot” readers are now emotionally driven to find additional information or products. Being active on blogs within your niche will help add authority, branding and traffic to your website.

Not just random traffic, but highly motivated readers that will devour your content.

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May
30

The ABC’s Of Marketing On The Web

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Here is a major problem we all face as business owners: generating more revenue. You may own a successful business but you always feel there is more your business can accomplish, this is the sole reason why you decided to reach the mass market of the web.

Unlike traditional marketing plans that apply to offline marketing, the web has introduced a new set of guidelines for marketing on the web. If you don’t know these new guidelines, you will be left in the dust.

To take a moderately performing business into a great business, website owners need to know how to correctly use the web for their marketing needs. There are many products and services available online that will teach you how to make an impact within the web but the ABC’s of marketing detailed in this post will easily get you started today.

There is no magic solution for internet success. It takes years of learning and implementation to truly understand how you can make an impact online. This is why I’ve created this post, so you can learn the ABC’s of marketing on the web.

Awareness
Awareness plays a large role in marketing on the web.

To conduct your business blindly on the web means you are missing out on the chance to find additional revenue and gain valuable feedback about real world customer satisfaction.

Companies that strive on the web are ones that are aware of their business. They are able to know when people are talking about their business and respond to customers which may not always be directed at you.

The web has allowed us consumers to actively voice our opinions about companies to the masses. In a split second a business could errupt in termoil from a single bad review or customer experience.

We are all listening to each other, the web is one giant word-of-mouth platform.

To be aware of your business and successfully market on the web you must take the time to learn new applications.

Applications such as Google analytics gives us insights on how our customers interact with our business. Twitter also allows us to monitor chatter about our business – giving us valuable customer interaction opportunities to build a better relationship or mend a broken one.

Branding
All great business need a brand at their core.

Branding, unlike the traditional sense, does not necessarily mean having a strong logo or flashy website. You could pay thousands of dollars in designer services to create impactful images but branding is what truly builds your online business.

Branding goes beyond the idea of setting your self image. On the web, you must always strive to keep your brand relevant and interesting to your customers and prospects.

Building communities through Facebook and a following on Twitter gives you an early start but there are many other options for each business.

A great brand will be able to win you customers but more importantly, to keep them.

A brand swells up emotional response from customers and prospects. It keeps your name on the tip of their tongues.

The main aspects of a great brand are:
•    Emotion
•    A strong logo that conveys your values
•    A consistent image
•    An online presence which drives a great user experience

These aspects should be applied to every party of your online real estate from your website to your social media campaign.

When your brand become synonymous with your products and services, people will fall in love with you which will lead to greater customer satisfaction and more revenue for your business.

Care

The rules of marketing have changed and not just for the web.

Unlike mass media marketing which is cold and far too broad, marketing on the web allows you to personally interact with your leads and customers.

People have become jaded by marketing because it fills their daily life to the point of exhaustion. Large companies have outsourced customer relations, only infuriating customers with the hassle of trying to get help.

Part of your marketing campaign should be dedicated to caring for your customers and prospects. Mass marketing cannot convey the same devotion to solving problems as a direct connection to your customers.

A caring company will meet the needs of each and every one of their customers. With such high competition within your market, every customer counts – especially in this downed economy.

By caring for your customer’s problems and answering their questions and comments, you will begin the path of a long term relationship. This long term relationship is built just like you would a friend, legitimately caring and interacting with one another.

When a customer knows you care for them and can voice their opinions with ample feedback from you, you will win them over and keep them for years to come.

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